Vive le weekend!

Saturday and Sunday were spent together as a family, something that hasn't happened in a long while.  The girls were tickled to pieces to have Didier home all weekend and we did one family activity after the next until all were thoroughly exhausted.  Saturday was pool day with both girls practicing the skills they'd learned at their swimming lessons and Mommy and Papa swimming laps and racing according to Lily's commands.  We did make a quick diversion to the grocery store to get some food for the week, but the girls love that too, so it was all in fun.  There was splashing in the paddling pool, baseball pitches to Lily, stroller rides around the garden for Virginie, capped off with an evening barbecue for all.


Sunday morning did not start out well, after a night up nursing and chatting with Virginie who continues to suffer each tooth as though she has never felt that sensation before.  A morning visit to the beach always washes the stress away and Didier proposed we do just that before I became the ogre I was beginning to resemble.

Our visits to the sea have been far too infrequent of late because it is such a chore to get everyone sunscreened and dressed, toys, blankets and towels packed, and Virginie in the stroller and Lily flip-flopped and ready to walk.  But once there, I always forget the struggle.  It was beautiful today...and something I cannot trade,  not even with the Hamptons or the Jersey Shore, both places I have spent a good deal of time.  The water is so clear and refreshing and we never find ourselves surrounded by people or lots of overproduced music.  The most obnoxious visitors to our beach camp are the wave runner drivers trolling the beach for people who might want to pay for a ride and the jewelry peddlers selling shell necklaces and coconut bracelets. 


I am so happy that we spent Saturday and Sunday morning together honoring each of the girls in their own way, because when a Sunday afternoon birthday party came around, I witnessed Mean Girls at the pre-school level and was nearly crushed for Lily in the way some of those little girls behaved!  It is my own fault really.  I took Lily to a birthday party for a little girl who was turning 5.  I am friendly with her mother, a woman I like very much and was hoping to get Lily and her daughter acquainted.  Perhaps I should have chosen a different day to do so, but hindsight really is 20/20. 


Lily didn't know any of the kids there which is usually not a problem.  Although a little shy, she makes friends easily; but she was out of her element here.  The kids were a little older and many knew each other already from school.  They just seemed to close their circle and poor Lily couldn't find a way in.  I felt myself wanting to defend her, to get in there and support her, and honestly, I did a few times.  She would get in the pool to swim and the other girls would just swim past her.  She tried to smile at them but they just ignored her.  There were a couple of girls who let her race with them and paddle around with them, but I found her often alone. 


When it was time for the kids to eat, she sat at a little table and ate her pizza and drank a glass of water from a crazy straw all by herself.  She seemed okay with that.  We have taught her table manners and she often seeks out a nice table with a napkin and a place for her cup so that she may dine properly.  (I mean, her father is a French chef after all!)  The other kids sat around, some with their plates on their laps, something Lily really doesn't care for. 


Once the evening was over and the girls were put to sleep, I spent far too long in tears thinking about my sweet girl feeling hurt and left out.  I know this is something all, or at least most kids go through.  I just wanted to spare her a few more years before that all began.  If I don't try to protect her, try to help her through these times, then what kind of mother would I be?